LETTER  The problem isn’t helmetless bikers, it’s distracted drivers

Dan Horne

Tuesday

Apr 24, 2012 at 12:01 AMApr 24, 2012 at 9:05 PM

I love the comments recently printed in The Sentinel and on The Sentinel’s website about the repeal of the motorcycle helmet law. Some of the writers have shown me that I am a total idiot. See, I support the repeal of the helmet law. Most of the time I will still wear mine, but it’s nice not to have to at times.

I love the comments recently printed in The Sentinel and on The Sentinel’s website about the repeal of the motorcycle helmet law. Some of the writers have shown me that I am a total idiot. See, I support the repeal of the helmet law. Most of the time I will still wear mine, but it’s nice not to have to at times.

It’s nice that there is one less thing that the government tells me to do for my own good. In some Hollanders’ eyes that makes me unworthy of medical care if someone hits me. They seem very happy to point out that I’ll be an organ donor on my “donor cycle.” They want the government to force me to be safe because I am too stupid to evaluate the risk and decide for myself. Oh, and I might increase the cost to society if someone T-bones me and I happen to survive (unlikely, helmet or not).

This morning on the way to work, in the rain, on my motorcycle, I was almost rear-ended by a distracted driver. I was sitting at a red light and a car came up behind me without slowing. At the last second the car swerved around me and blew right though the red light. The driver was blabbing away on the cell phone.

The many, many distracted drivers are the real problem and the real cost-to-society increasers. To the pro-nanny state people I say don’t worry about me on my bike. In a crash I am most likely to die (very cheap for society) and it’s most likely to be caused by a driver who is on the phone, changing songs, programming the GPS, eating, applying makeup, reading, shaving or tending to a child in the back seat. (We’ve all seen them do it.) If we’re going to call the helmet-less motorcyclist stupid and complain about the cost to society then why don’t we figure out what all the distracted drivers cost us? On a motorcycle we are focused on one thing – driving. That probably makes us the smart ones.

Dan Horne
Holland

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